MTB road trip around NSW

In March last year we went on a Delvy adventure from Brisbane to NSW to see family and friends, and to enjoy as many MTB trails as we could find along the way. Taking the inland route to try and escape the heat, we got more than we bargained for.

The hot, dry, summer landscape of the Upper Hunter

“What was that”? I shouted gripping the side of the passenger seat as we lurched abruptly on the Golden Highway and slowed to a crawl from 90km/h. Surrounded by endless fields of wheat interspersed with endless fields of sheep, Delvy limped to a standstill on the boiling tarmac and the following traffic banked up behind us. The browness of the landscape was accentuated by the scorching late summer sun. It was 38 degrees Celsius, and we had a deflated tyre to the rim in the middle of nowhere.

Hot conditions for changing a tyre on a 5 tonne bus 

We’d just passed through the Upper Hunter town of Merriwa, 20 kilometres back, and were heading to Bathurst, via Mudgee for an MTB ride. Guess we are not going anywhere now. Thankfully, an SES vehicle was travelling behind us: they immediately sprang into action, directing and halting vehicles which assisted us to slowly reverse into a conveniently placed property entrance. Scratching our heads as to why a brand-new tyre dramatically deflated, we weren’t looking forward to sweltering whilst changing a tyre on our 5-tonne bus. But we had no choice. Anyway, we were more than capable of doing it. My brother’s insistence that I learn to change a tyre whilst learning to drive in my teenage years made me relatively useful to help with the task. And Gary excels at tyre changing– this was the second one in a week. We have only had to do it once before on Delvy in the last 10 years. Now we had four new tyres and two flats in 2 weeks. Hmmm, what’s going on? The night before we planned to depart on this Delvy adventure to see friends and family in NSW, a long hissing sound caught my attention as I was packing. Realising it was coming from Delvy, I watched the outer left, brand new tyre slowly deflate. We’d only driven 70 kms from the Sunshine Coast along the motorway with the new tyres! Removing that one was fairly easy to manage, thank goodness. We drove the inner rear onto a block of wood (always handy to have a block of wood onboard), which lifted the outer tyre enough to remove, put in a friend’s car and take to the nearest tyre place (one that knows about heavy vehicles and split rims). A cheap shoddy valve was the culprit, plus the lack of a rust ring. Eighty dollars later we were good to go again, although we were left wondering how many other dodgy valves were fitted.

So, back to the middle of nowhere in the baking sun (did I mention it was hot?). After Gary’s excellent driving skills through the incident, he put his mechanical knowledge to good use. Extracting our newly purchased jack from under the bed, along with the wheel brace and extension pole, we cracked the nuts before jacking the bus high enough to get the wheel off. There was a fair bit of grunting and groaning, interspersed with short breaks under the shade of a nearby small tree for some respite from the hot, midday sun. "Yeah, man, but it's a dry heat”, we joked in our best Hudson accents, gulping down water and batting away flies.

Retrieving the spare tyre was not a simple task either. First, we had to unload the 18 kilogram apiece MTBs off the tow bar bike rack, then wind down the spare from beneath the rear of the bus and extract it, then roll it and lift it onto the wheel hub. Who needs a gym membership when one has a heavy vehicle. All up, we completed the right front tyre change in about 90 minutes, which also included loading the shredded tyre into the spare tyre slot, replacing the MTBs, and packing away all the tools and equipment.

As the spare tyre had low air pressure, and it was the driver steer, it was best we backtracked to Merriwa instead of continuing the 100 kilometres of remote road to Mudgee. So, we dawdled along, announcing our slowness on Channel 40 to any trucks coming our way. Back in town, we were mistaken thinking we could get some service as everything closes at midday on a Saturday. The only service station in town didn’t have a compressor that allows for more than 40 psi, so we had to wait until Monday. We set up camp behind the main street in the free camp spot, along with a few others, also with bikes attached. Le Tour de Merriwa was on this weekend, but we thought it was too darn hot to participate in the 50kms gravel bike ride through the dry, dusty landscape. Soft, I know. Instead, we set about seeing the town sights, after shouting ourselves a bakery treat (the only food shop open), seeking air conditioning wherever we could find it. The local history museum in an 1857 sandstone colonial cottage presents a collection of items from times past and serves as a family research centre. I was pleasantly surprised to see my mother’s name in the list of teachers at Cassilis Public School in the History & Reflections of Cassilis. Both parents were teachers (Dad taught in the nearby one-horse town of Turill) and from 1963 to 1966 they lived in Cassilis (that was where we were headed for morning tea before the tyre incident), and coincidentally, my sister was born in Merriwa. In the cool of the evening, we took a stroll around the small wheat and sheep town, admiring the handful of heritage listed buildings and the newly painted silos on the outskirts of town.

Merriwa wheat silos

We saved the main attraction, the Tourist Welcoming Centre, for the next day. It is full of locally made crafts and an interesting display about the International Back to Back Wool Challenge, announcing that The Pembroke Merriwa Jumbucks was officially the fastest shearing, spinning and knitting team in the world in 2014, completing the task in record time of four hours, 51 minutes and 14 seconds. Each team comprised a blade shearer, a sheep from the team’s country of origin, seven hand spinners with spinning wheels, and knitters who created an adult-sized jumper from the wool. How about that, eh? It’s taken me six months to knit a jumper from already spun yarn. To round off the weekend, we spent Sunday afternoon at the Merriwa Olympic Pool, alternating between a refreshing swim and relaxing on spread out towels, in the shade, on the only green grass in the district.

Come Monday morning we were the first customers at the local tyre business. But after all that waiting, he couldn’t help us. Strange for a rural area that would be full of heavy machinery and the like. Looks like we will have to drive to Mudgee on the spare tyre, but we still needed to get more air. Maybe the service station can help now that the mechanic is on duty. No joy there either. While we figured out what to do, we drove to the dump station to empty the cassette. A couple arrived in their Viscount caravan to do the same, so I moved the bus forward and shut down the engine as we all had a chat. Not the usual thing at a dump point but hey, this is rural Australia. They were locals returning from a trip, and ironically a family member used to own the tyre business, selling it to the current owner three years ago. They weren’t surprised that we couldn’t get what we needed – they have watched the business slowly deteriorate, predicting its imminent closure.

Time to get more air in the tyre and get out of here. But for the first time ever, Delvy didn’t start. Oh, what now? It’s completely dead. Groan. Thankfully Gary the diesel mechanic knew exactly what the problem was: the starter motor. Where do we get one of those? From under Delvy’s bed that we have been carrying around for 10 years, of course. A brand spanking new one, still in the wrapper. Sometimes you just get lucky. So, out comes the jack, wheel ramps, and toolbox: the mobile workshop is set up again. The temperature was climbing, so we wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. Fortunately, I had moved the bus into a bit of shade. Unfortunately, we were still near the dump station, so we were regularly blasted with the acrid aroma of human waste. Not so lucky now. 

Another roadside repair, this time a replacement starter motor.

Anyway, we were done within the hour. Delvy started perfectly. We’d really like to leave this town now. Please. But we still had to get air in the spare tyre. There was an auto electrician around the corner, maybe he had a compressor. We’re in luck again! The man said he saw Gary under the bus when he drove past earlier. We informed him we were changing the starter motor. He said, “You’re lucky you had one, ‘cause you would have had to order one from me and it would have taken a week”. Oh, no. A whole week in Merriwa in this stinkin’ heat doesn’t bear thinking about.

With the spare tyre finally pumped up, we didn’t look back as we drove out of town. Driving cautiously, stopping and checking the tyres every 50 kms or so, we made it to Mudgee in the relentless heat. Just to add to the already challenging conditions, bushfires were ablaze all around, the smoke whitewashing the landscape and making our eyes water. No helpful tyre place in Mudgee either. Lack of staff the main culprit, so we continued onto Bathurst. We so don’t want to break down again in this Armageddon atmosphere. After several phone calls to various tyre dealerships, we finally get a win: we are booked in at the Bridgestone workshop in five days’ time. Another handful of $100 notes later we had two new tyres, all tubes and valves checked, and rust bands fitted. On seeing all the evidence, it was just bad luck we had the second flat tyre – we must have run over something on the highway.

Waiting for roadworks in 40 degree heat surrounded by bushfire smoke

Putting Tyregate behind us we continued our holiday. If we thought we were going to escape the heat, we were, once again, mistaken. When we departed Brisbane we specifically headed inland to the tablelands for cool mountain air, but it was a hot start to Autumn everywhere. In Stanthorpe we witnessed an almighty thunderstorm with 30 mms of rain in an hour  - cooling us overnight only to heat back up the next day. Still, it was bearable enough for an MTB ride around a friend’s forested and granite rock acreage on the NSW border, followed by a few laps around the UNE Armidale MTB park further down the New England Highway. Afternoon storm activity travelled with us all the way but mostly only came with a few rain drops. By the time we dropped down in elevation to the Upper Hunter and then the Central Tablelands, the heat was relentless with a total fire ban across the entire state.

Delvy's campsite near Stanthorpe

Finally on the bikes - smiles all round

Even Oberon was hot for successive days. At 1100 metres above sea level, March is usually the time for the wood heater, but it wasn’t needed for the entire week we stayed. I didn’t even have to put on a jumper: now that’s a first. Thankfully though it cooled down at night, and the crisper mornings enabled us to service Delvy and give her an overdue cut and polish. She must have been happy with the TLC as there were no more mechanical or tyre issues. Phew!

Delvy gets a polish with some family help

With maintenance chores out of the way, it was time to play, while trying to keep cool. A canoe on Lake Oberon and hanging around my brother’s shaded dams, fishing for yabbies in one and racing model speed boats on the other. For something really different a group of us took a trip in luxury air conditioned 4WDs to the ghost town of Yerranderrie, some 100 kilometres away through Regional Park. It was 45 degrees outside so stops were brief, but the scenery and history of the area was interesting enough to keep us distracted.

Boat racing on the cool dam

Old mining town of Yerranderrie, now a popular camping spot

Once the weather returned to normal, we met with our Bathurst connections for various activities. An MTB ride at Rydal with my old school captain, a round of trivia at the local pub (we won!), lunch at historic Rylstone, a walk around the Orange Botanical Gardens, viewing the Archie 100 at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, helping out a friend with her newly bought house, and much more.

MTB with friends

Summer flowers at Orange Botanical Gardens

Well known faces at the Archibald exhibition in Bathurst

Missing the ocean, it was time to head to east. We took the scenic Bylong Road that links the Central Tablelands to the Hunter, a route taken numerous times on family holidays. Traffic was quieter than usual, perhaps due to the closure of the general store halfway along, but the more likely reason was the Swiss cheese road surface. It had been the worst road for potholes that we had come across since we last travelled, all due to the 2022 floods. Afternoon storms were forecasted so prudently we decided to stop for the night at the Bylong campground and rest area. Parked in front of a peppercorn tree in the safety of Delvy, we watched in awe as an almighty storm front come through blowing magpies out of trees.

Magpie hanging on for dear life as the storm front came through at Bylong

It was a precursor for the remainder of the week: it rained on and off each day we were in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. Still, we made the most of it in between showers with a boogie board at Bar Beach, a walk around the WW2 Armour Range at Stockton, a night out at the theatre to see Dial M for Murder, an open day at the Dale Frank Botanical Gardens, and a spin around Glenrock Lagoon MTB trails for stunning views of the Newcastle coastline.

Stockton Breakwater and Nobbys Lighthouse

Bar Beach surf - the water was quite cool

WW2 remnants at the armour testing range

Amazing garden designed by Dale Frank

Scenic MTB trails along the Newcastle coastline

Picturesque Lake Macquarie

Heading north up the Pacific Highway the clouds disappeared long enough for us to revisit the Big 3 as we like to call it: Taree MTB Park, Bom Bom State Forest at Grafton, and New Italy. The last time we rode these already great trails was in 2019, which have since extended and improved. Over the next few days we dodged thunderstorms and visited the Koala Hospital at Port Macquarie, the Tacking Point Lighthouse that we have sailed past numerous times, and the resident bat colony of Wingham Brush and the local museum. Not as much MTBing as we would have liked due to the inclement weather, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Plenty of catching up with family and friends though.

Friendly chickens at Taree MTB park

Enjoying one of many BBQs. This one accompanied with the sound of bats heading out for the night.

1000s of grey headed flying foxes roost and breed in the Wingham Brush Nature Reserve

Tacking Point Lighthouse

Rescued koalas cared for at Port Macquarie

The weather stabilised as we headed towards the Queensland border and an unexpected visit to the rainforest in Coolgardie with expansive views across the Richmond River to the ocean. Sometimes you find yourself in a place you wouldn’t think to visit - one of the many joys of travelling and the people that you meet along the way. After 6 weeks on the road, we crossed the border back into Queensland and had a last ride around our favourite trail, the Ferny Loop near the Glasshouse Mountains, before packing the bikes away and returning to the water.

Ferny Loop on the Sunshine Coast

Stay tuned for the next MTB adventure: Delvy returning to Tasmania for the summer of 2024.